Cross Hill student's engineering double

2:08pm Tuesday 8th July 2008

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Take three cycle wheels, a fire extinguisher, a length of scrap tubular steel, a couple of bike chains, three cogs, two go-cart wheels, a drainage pipe and plenty of water, and what do you get?

Well, in the hands of young scrapaholic Daniel Briggs, an automobile that moves at a fair running pace but without a motor.

The vehicle is somewhat wayward and needs 12-year-old Daniel to keep a watchful eye on its route, but it has impressed enough judges for them to award him two top prizes for his engineering ingenuity.

But perhaps it is not a surprise, for the year seven pupil at South Craven School, Cross Hills, near Keighley, has the engineering gene.

He is the fourth generation of a family steeped in automotive industry.

His great-grandfather, Walter C Brigg founded the company that now operates out of Cross Hills with Daniel’s father, Roger, and uncle Richard at the helm.

And ever since Daniel has been able to stand on a box to reach a bench, he has been tinkering.

His latest invention was sparked by a Young Farmers’ challenge – he is a member of Lothersdale YFC – to build a moving vehicle from scrap, no batteries or motor allowed.

His solution was to use a modified fire extinguisher from which water is forced by compressed air through a tube and onto cupped blades fixed to a fly wheel.

“It’s the same thing as a water wheel in which water falls on to blades and drives the wheel round,” he said.

“The water from the upside down fire extinguisher is forced by the pressure on to the cups of the fly wheel which drives the two main wheels though a set of gears.”

He took it along to the Young Farmers County Show at Pateley Bridge and came first in the challenge.

He and his dad then heaved it onto the back of the car and took it all the way to Driffield, where he was representing Yorkshire in the Northern Area field day, taking the top prize again.

Mum Tracy said: “We’re very proud of him.

“It was fantastic when he won at Driffield, but he is all the time making things. He can’t stop. He’s going to be another Fred Dibnah.”

Earlier this year, Daniel won the South Craven School head teacher’s challenge to build a one minute timer out of household articles.

He used a pallet hung on the wall in which a metal ball rolled from the top to the bottom, triggered another ball which rolled from the top left hitting the bottom and operating a buzzer.